Lift up the x and y knobs to move the cursor without drawing a line. Push 'em back down to carry on drawing as normal.

Finally get to draw the sun in the sky, without it being joined to the cloud or the tree.

_________________________________

Having researched
this a little further, I can now propose the mechanism by which this would work [thanks to half, thanks to the link]

In pushing down the x and y knobs, the orthagonal tracks that house the stylus would be sunk further into the casing. This would allow the stylus to be removed from the surface of the plastic and thus be moved without drawing.

If a lazer (like those presentation pointers) was added to the stylus head, this would shine through the silver thus indicating where the pointer is when you can't see it.

If i remember correctly, you can do
this by carefully turning the etch-
a-sketch upside down and moving
the pointer.. then again it was
years ago, am I making this up?
[not that having the pull-up
buttons doesn't still serve a
purpose] +

Maybe just use the laser and a laser-sensitive surface to do all of the marking. Then you could modulated the laser in unusual ways to generate natural media line styles and spirograph like motifs. You could even have a deluxe model that transmits the instructions for a drawing so that a friend could retrieve them and see your drawing on her unit, a Fetch-a-Sketch.

etch o sketch is great! while changing the design, flexible pivots and a third knob could be added for making curves. granted your talented sketchers can master this feat, but your elementary users would devinitely enjoy the perks of curves :)

Adding to the Etch-a-Sketch ruins the challenge of overcoming the limitations of a very simple device. If you want something that allows you to draw easily and practically, get a pen and paper. If you don't want to use up paper, get a tablet PC. The challenge is part of the fun. An Etch-a-Sketch picture will never be as good as a picture in most other mediums, but it can be appreciated because others know how hard it is to draw anything good on an Etch-a-Sketch.

One of the things that makes EaS art uniquely challenging is that you can't lift the line up. Hence, you must be clever in your planning, incorporating all linking lines into the rendered scene. If the EaS were given the ability to not make lines, it would lose most of its charm.

One might liken it to the CDs vs vinyl debate. Sure CDs are more convinient and sound better (in theory). But they lack the je ne sais quoi that records provide to purists.

There was this kid who was extreamly good at etch a sketch that drew detailed human faces. He would spend weeks (or mybe months) creating his drawings. After one picture was done, he would go out and buy another etch a sketch so he wouldnt have to ruin his previous creation. Just goes to show how much more fun it can be than old pen n paper.

The first time I read your post,
[DarkRanger], I misread one important
vowel, and the result was quite
unintional: I imagined this boy,
consulting a live model, spending
months painstakingly rendering
detailed images of human feces. The
funniest was the mental image of the
boy passing through an endless gallery
of Etch-a-Sketch feces to add another
steamer to his collection.

As for the laser: The necessary power
source would complicate. Best to nix it,
thus keeping some of the skill and
guesswork inherent to the Etch-a-
Sketch experience.